Worker rights : The great salary caper – why you can’t get a decent raise

October 28, 2:53 PMDC Corporate Ethics ExaminerJim Cunningham

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(Part two of yesterday’s article.)

Greed. You see it every time you fail to receive a decent raise, or any raise at all, despite being a good employee. Instead, you see your company grow richer and expand by opening new plants and locations, purchasing new equipment and by investing in things that will increase the take of the owners and executives, all while you and your co-workers take home pay that increases more slowly than the cost of living. Have you ever wondered where your employer gets the money to build new buildings and buy expensive new equipment while the employees have been told for years that there’s no room in the budget for raises? It’s all about priorities. They choose where there’s room in the budget, and employee salaries are simply not a priority in current corporate culture. (In fact employees themselves are often expendable, but I won’t get into that here. Layoffs will be the subject of a future article.)

Corporations have an effective system for keeping salaries down. It’s not a secret that they use these systems. In fact, many are fairly open about it. The only surprise is that employees have been so content, for so long, going along with a system that works against them. Employers use salary surveys. They survey other corporations to find out what they’re paying THEIR people. This is a service where a company can find out what the average pay is for someone in your position is for a particular region. Sounds fair, right? Except that that salary information is collected from other companies who also have an interest in keeping their salaries down as well. And then, just to be sure, your employer pays you just a smidgen below the average. Then your salary gets figured into the average. In short, your salary stays low because it was calculated based on the average salaries of other people just like you who are getting paid the bare minimum THEIR employers can get away with. That’s one hell of a racket they have going! Is it any wonder, then, that salaries continue to go down relative to inflation?

People are being treated as a commodity, and a cheap one at that. And there’s no way out of it any time soon. Eventually, the pendulum will swing the other way, and good help will be a precious commodity instead of one employers can, and do, take for granted. But we’re not there yet. It reminds me of the back and forth described in one of my favorite articles of all time: Why Quitting Is Back It's a little old, but it's something I always send to friends and co-workers when they turn in their notice or if they're just thinking about it.

And really, that’s the only way to fight their system for determining your salary. Declare, “this isn’t good enough” and leave for a place that believes you’re worth more.

I know. It sounds crazy to even think of in an economy where you’re lucky to be employed at all. But your time will come. And when it does, you’ll remember the way they treated you when they could treat you however they liked.